Chapter 401: Alicia’s Commanding Voice

After witnessing all that commotion in the middle of the morning, Alicia decided it was time to put an end to the distractions.

The spectacle with Lise had completely frozen half the servants in the galleries and balconies, where dozens of demons were still leaning out with their mouths open, unable to believe what they had just seen. If no one brought order soon, they were going to spend the rest of the day murmuring in the hallways instead of fulfilling their duties.

Alicia took a step forward, straightened her back, and gave two sharp claps that echoed across the courtyard.

"The show is over!" Alicia ordered with a commanding voice, sweeping the upper floors and entrances with a stern gaze that admitted no replies. "All the demons of the castle, return to work immediately!"

No one dared to contradict her. One after another, the maids and guards hurried into action, embarrassed at having been caught slacking.

And rightfully so. Now that there was so much destruction and chaos scattered throughout the property—caused solely by Ryan swinging his massive boomerang and unleashing the pressure of his attack—there was a massive amount of cleaning work to do before evening fell. The balconies were covered in broken glass that crunched on the stone, the wooden frames of the towers had been splintered by the shockwave, and several interior doors had been knocked off their hinges by the tremor.

However, when the maids began to gather the brooms and buckets, Alicia wasn’t finished with her reprimands.

She turned on her heels and fixed her eyes directly on Helen and Mirian, who were still near Lise after having pulled her off Ryan’s arm.

Both SS-rank heroines were the spitting image of a morning disaster. Besides having gotten up so late, when the sun was already high in the sky, they weren’t even properly dressed to appear in front of their subordinates: Helen’s clothes were hastily thrown on, with her sleep shirt slipping off one shoulder and her boots untied, while Mirian looked noticeably disheveled, with blonde strands sticking out in all directions like a bird’s nest.

Alicia approached them and crossed her arms.

"And as for you two..." Alicia began, reprimanding them with a sharp tone that made both Helen and Mirian shrink a bit in their spots. "What exactly would you have done if we had truly been under an enemy attack, coming out looking like that?"

Helen opened her mouth and raised a finger with the intention of protesting, while Mirian averted her gaze to the side with her cheeks flushed from embarrassment.

"We heard the roar and came out as fast as..." Helen tried to excuse herself quietly.

"Without armor, half asleep, and at this hour of the morning," Alicia cut her off without letting her finish. "You two are the most powerful combatants in Kowarre after His Majesty. The others look to you as an example, so you should be much more responsible with your guard duty."

Both opened their mouths again to try and refute the scolding, but the words got stuck in their throats. No matter how much SS-rank pride they had, neither of them could fight against the crushing logic of that argument while standing in their sleepwear in the middle of the snow.

"Tsk... We get it, we’re going to get dressed," Helen murmured through gritted teeth, lowering her head while Mirian nodded silently.

With red ears and without looking anyone in the eyes, the two turned around and retreated toward the interior of the keep reluctantly.

From the edge of the parapet, Ryan observed the entire scene with his hands clasped behind his back, maintaining a perfectly neutral expression.

’It seems Alicia is still quite angry because of what happened earlier with Janina, and now she is taking it out on everyone who crosses her path,’ Ryan thought pragmatically, taking great care not to let out a smile. ’For my own good, I will pretend I don’t notice anything. Though... to be honest, I didn’t think she would look so cute scolding the others with that strict boss face.’

Just as that idea finished forming in his head, a familiar, honeyed voice resonated directly inside his mind through their mental link.

’Young master, don’t you think I look very cute too?’

Ryan barely turned his face to the side to look at her out of the corner of his eye.

A few steps away, where Helen and Mirian had let her go, Lise was still standing, staring at him. Far from looking innocent or adorable, her expression of lust was still maxed out: her pupils were dilated, an intense blush crossed her cheeks, and she was still licking her lips, remembering the taste of the energy she had just swallowed.

Ryan didn’t even blink as he answered her through the mental channel.

’Not in the slightest.’

From the other side of the link, a dramatic groan was heard, accompanied by the pout Lise made with her lips.

’Ah, how cruel you are to me, young master...’

’You better keep quiet for once and go guard the territory’s borders,’ he ordered her bluntly.

Despite such a dry rejection, Lise didn’t seem remotely discouraged. She let out a soft giggle, deployed her magical thrust, and lifted off the ground with a light jump. She flew away toward the clear northern sky with an expression of absolute satisfaction painted on her face; after all, she didn’t care about the scolding because she had already had her favorite food for breakfast today: Ryan’s pure energy.

Once the dragoness’s figure was lost in the heights, Ryan rested his gaze again on the panorama opening up beyond the outer walls.

For Kowarre’s future development, that cut with the Heavy Symbol had resolved the project’s biggest bottleneck. As soon as Chloe finished reviving Elric from his fainting spell, the elven builders’ leader could work without worrying about deadlines to expand the city, now that Ryan had disappeared the entire mountain with his massive power.

Of course, the terrain hadn’t been left ready to build houses on immediately. Down there, they still had to work quite hard to level the destroyed rock floor and cover the enormous flat trench his attack had excavated toward the horizon; but, luckily, having the elves’ earth magic would help speed up that filling in a matter of a few days instead of weeks.

Satisfied with the calculation, Ryan turned on his heels back toward the courtyard.

Among the few present who still remained near the northern area, Irina and Chloe stayed very close to each other, like good exploration partners who had already gotten used to watching each other’s backs.

Ryan looked at them both for a moment, evaluating their current state. Certainly, if he compared them to monsters like Lise, the SS-rank heroines, or William’s group, the two of them were still the weakest of the main team in terms of stats.

Even so, they were fulfilling a key function for the mapping of his lands.

"Have you located more dungeons within Kowarre’s borders?" Ryan asked, directing his words directly to Irina, the elven princess.